Loud Thinking

Archive for August, 2013

How Optimism Can Hurt Your Team

For managers, optimism may seem like a great trait to have: A boss with a can-do attitude motivates others and makes them feel good. But there’s a downside too. An excessively positive outlook on a tough project may give the impression that you think the work is easy and doesn’t require any struggle. And, when you aren’t concerned about or dismiss the problems your team faces, it leaves others to worry about those risks. You might also send the message that mistakes and failure are not an option because the work should be a breeze. Wise managers know that missteps are inevitable, and that failure is just the price of creativity. So next time you want to ask your team, “How hard can it be?” reconsider whether you’re being overly optimistic.

Adapted by HBR from “Your Optimism Might Be Stifling Your Team,” by Liz Wiseman.

Mr. Nawaz Sharif Prime Minister of Pakistan, perhaps you know very well that your today’s gesture of goodwill of releasing 365 Indian prisoners, which was almost ignored by the thankless Indians and their media, has been reciprocated by the Indians by martyring our soldier on the LOC. Yesterday, the Indians martyred a captain of the Pak Army.

Now the question is are we supposed to live under the aggressive designs and hegemony of the Indians under your rule, as a disgraced nuclear power?

Kindly, immediately snap diplomatic ties with India and stop any Indian planes overflying Pakistan.

If India do not want to live in peace with Pakistan, we should tell them that Pakistan also gives them a hoot.

“Change is the law of life. And those who look only to the past or present are certain to miss the future.”

— John F. Kennedy

کیا ھوا تیرا وعدە ؟

Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan, during recent general elections and even before that, you and your party claimed many times that if PMLN was voted to power, the first thing it will do was that it will bring back the looted wealth and money of Pakistan, kept in Switzerland and other countries by the corrupt Pakistanis.

Now, the nation has a right to ask you that why no mention was made by you of this promise, in either in your first speech at the National Assembly, or in the recent televised address to the nation?

Mian Nawaz Sharif Sahab, we hope you will not give the same reply to us, which Mr. Asif Ali Zardari gave to you on the judges restoration agreement, that these promises are not Quran or Hadees.

Kindness is the quality of being friendly, generous, and considerate.

“The smallest act of kindness is worth more than the grandest intention.”

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900);
novelist, playwright

A must read letter published in the daily DAWN titled “Paris of East”: a US guidebook.

WE may gripe about things in Karachi and consider it a very crowded crime-plagued city. But that was not always the case. I recently chanced upon an information booklet about Karachi published for the benefit of American soldiers stationed here during World War II.

Entitled ‘A locally produced information booklet for US soldiers for Karachi’, published in 1942, it speaks of Karachi as the “Paris of the East” because it says it is “the cleanest city in the whole of India”.

After giving information about the city’s political status – capital of the Sindh government with a population of 400,000 – the guidebook says Karachi is called the ‘Gateway to India’ because as a port it serves not only Balochistan, Punjab and UP but also Afghanistan.

Very few of us know that Karachi used to produce grapes. While talking of the Gandhi Gardens, the guidebook says “grapes grown in the gardens are famous not only in Karachi but outside also”. Malir, now part of Karachi, is referred to in the booklet as being “12 miles from Karachi” and is “well-known for its fruits gardens”.

The Clifton beach “is considered by some as the best in the whole of India. It has a parade made of cement concrete and red stone. The beach extends about seven miles and is a very fine place for sea bathing and excursions in the moonlight”. It also dwells on Sands Pits and refers to Hawks Bay “as the best spot in Karachi”.

The museum the book refers to is still there where it was in 1942, but very few Karachiites know or it bother to visit it – at Burns Road. Called then Victoria Museum, it contained Moenjo Daro relics, a variety of fighting arms and tribal dresses for men and women.

Transport finds repeated mention in the guidebook and gives details of bus and tram routes and the fares. The newspapers then published were Sindh Observer and Daily Gazette, besides two evening papers — Karachi Daily and Sindh Observer’s evening edition.

Fascinating to read are advertisements. Some of the shops mentioned are still there, but many have disappeared. As for eating houses, old Karachiites will miss restaurants which have disappeared — Café Grand, Café Oxford and two Chinese restaurants — Chunking and Victory.

All that has happened to Karachi is not all negative. Karachi has flourished into a major industrial centre, it is a dynamic city, its educational institutions continue to increase, and it has an enviable philanthropic establishment. Let us work to restore Karachi to its glory and make it a crime-free city.

S. MOHAMMAD SIBTAIN Karachi

A must read for the PM and the planners of Pakistan.

A letter titled “micro-finance instead of alms” published by the daily DAWN.

THE natural calamities that struck Pakistan in the last decade, including the 2005 earthquake, the floods of the last few years and even displacement of people due to military action, led to the formation of many new NGOs, as well as to expansion of activities of existing NGOs and a massive influx of local and foreign aid that was provided in the form of cash and kind to the affected parties. These are all lofty developments which bring a sense of munificence in the general populace but at the same time this can result in the proliferation in our society of the debilitating characteristic of mendicancy.

There is no harm in providing aid to poverty-stricken people but constantly providing financial help can lead to the habit of living in a situation where they don’t have to work, yet they receive financial help. In the long run this may result in the deteriorating of quality of labour which will affect the country economically, as well as result in the development of a psyche of scrounging which can have negative implications for the social fabric of the nation.

Instead of doling out donations, NGOs and relevant government institutions can design micro-financing projects under which the affected people are provided with small businesses in the form of a long-term loan, such as a fruit pushcart or a small pa’an shop or a French fries kiosk, or a few cows to sell milk in case of a rural area.

This is proposed, of course, in addition to education and skill development. The beneficiaries can be provided with the technical know-how of running the business, as well as a plan to take this small loan capital back from them in the form of monthly tiny cash installments.

Once the beneficiary has returned the entire amount, he will feel a sense of ownership in the business venture, he will end up with a running business which can be expanded further based on his personal acumen, the benefactor will get the amount back which can be utilised somewhere else. The habit of being dependent on aid for livelihoods should not penetrate a society that is already fraught with many other evils. As a nation, we have been roaming around the world with a begging bowl at the official level. Let’s build our society with massive micro-financing across the country to make our people self-reliant and prevent mendicity from becoming a national attribute.

M. M. A. Hossain
Karachi

“Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant.”

— Robert Louis Stevenson

Strength is the ability to withstand.